Success with teaching Spanish to kids at home comes from a commitment to making language learning a part of your life, not just a part of your school day. Fluency and communication skills—which are important goals for language learning—come through regular use and practice. If you want to help your kids learn Spanish in your homeschool and you’re not fluent yourself, these tips will help you be successful.
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How many credits does your homeschooled high schooler need to graduate? How do you give credit for the work your students are doing? And how do you count credits? In the world of homeschooling high schoolers, there are many questions that often don’t have clear answers because they often don’t apply to parents whose children attend a school. When you go to set up your own homeschool high school transcript and meet graduation requirements, you’ll need to know how to assign credits for the work your students have completed and know which courses you should be including.
Creating your own homeschool schedule is one of the greatest freedoms of homeschooling. Schools need set schedules to keep large groups of students organized and on track. But homeschool schedules allow for much more flexibility. Your homeschool daily routine doesn’t include time spent forming a line, taking scheduled bathroom trips, and or giving multiple students individual attention. If you need tips for creating a flexible but productive day for any grade, the following homeschool schedule ideas, samples, and resources will help you find a routine that fits your homeschool flow.
Learning experiences are the heart of teaching. A learning experience is any interaction with a student that leads to understanding new information. That may sound broad, but God’s creation is so wonderfully complex that learning can happen anywhere and at any time. Learning experiences aren’t limited to planned lessons; children can learn through spontaneous activities, dinner table conversations, grocery store shopping, or independent playtime.
Children’s minds are basically blank slates—they are constantly gaining new information. Education should gradually build on this foundation with new information and help children develop important learning skills. Successful learning experiences encourage children’s confidence and willingness to learn. Let’s explore some effective forms of learning experiences and tips for continuing successful learning.
When I homeschooled my two boys, we were able to take full advantage of the flexibility homeschooling offered. Creative scheduling allowed me to take into account my boys’ different personalities and adjust to the needs of our family. Our schedule didn’t always allow for the length of a typical school day. One of the boys liked to get up early in the morning and tackle his work, while the other wanted to do his work later. And neither of the boys liked having full open days with no work to do. So we adopted a schedule that suited everyone.
In the early years, daily lesson times revolved around the needs of my schedule, but as the boys got older, we didn’t have set times for any of their subjects. That way they could arrange their responsibilities within the time they had available. Most days we doubled up on at least one subject so that we could finish five days of work in four. Then our Friday would be a field trip day—whether we were going to a museum or visiting the park. We especially liked this schedule the fall because it meant we had plenty of good field trip opportunities. Any work that we weren’t able to finish through the week, we would do on Saturday. Doing that every week, we had the flexibility to take an extended break for Christmas and still finish our required school days by the end of April .
During the school year, we only did subjects with 180 days of work during the school day, leaving the 90-day subjects for the summer. So, in the lower grades, we would do history and science during the summer. In the upper grades, we’d do literature. I also added in other learning activities such as math games, keyboarding, and foreign language practice as well as recreational reading time. That gave my boys a couple of hours of work each day, which kept them busy, but wasn’t overwhelming to them. With that set up, we were also able to count some of their textbook reading toward the library’s summer reading program.
In the end, our homeschool schedule was a little unusual, but it worked for us. I was able to capitalize on homeschool flexibility so that both of my boys’ learning needs were met in the best way possible.